Hello Artintel,
I haven't yet started my MBA program, so I won't be able to give you a full critique of how the degree does or does not prepare you for the real world of business.
Suffice it to say that I'm well aware that theory and practice are two different things at times. In business school you do case studies and read off the textbooks, in real life you respond to a whole new dynamic - human psychology.
Case studies can try to mimic that factor, but they always will fall short. There are some MBA programs that actually permit students to work in a consultant fashion with a local firm and attempt to solve a problem. That gives some good real life exposure. There are also computer simulation systems which attempt to do this.
There are, in my view, two good reasons to get an MBA:
1) The working establishment has made it a base employment prerequisite for a number of highly responsible positions. It is also extremely essential if you are changing careers.
2) The theoretical background offered in an MBA program gives you the language in which to express ideas, and a framework for diagnosis of problems as well as an organized means of coming up with a solution. These are all tools, but to use them right you need real human experience.
For instance, if you want to trade the stock market, there is what is called \"technical analysis\", a system of analyzing the price behavior of a tradeable security. Knowing technical analysis is not in itself sufficient to make you a trader, however. You need real experience, and you need to know how to use your judgment.
I think that managers can only benefit from an MBA, provided they adopt a flexible way of thinking (including thinking outside the box, which is what you seem to suggest), and not adhere to rigid decision making charts that limit the scope of certain problems (and therefore, automatically exclude certain solutions).
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